-1825.] 
importance to the discharge of civil and 
political duties)—they believe in. tran- 
_ substantiation, and acknowledge the real 
presence of a triune Deity in a gilded 
pageant, orin the elevation of the host ! ! 
Is not such a train of ratiocination, 
Sir, if it may be dignified with such a 
name, the very acme, at once, of arzo- 
gance and of puerility? Is it not the 
height of injustice to exclude a man 
from a seat in the Legislature, because 
he acknowledges the spiritual supre- 
macy of the Pope (now, God be praised ! ! 
a very impotent and harmless sort of 
animal !), bows and prays to the Virgin, 
and crosses himself, at every recurrence 
of the name, the image, or the picture of 
any of his interminable host of saints 2* 
while, at the same time, he who has no 
conscience at all, upon these, or upon 
any other matters,—who can swallow 
every oath and every test that can be 
offered to him—is qualified, of course, 
to exercise all the functions, and enjoy 
every privilege of: freemen !—can be 
elected a Member of the Imperial Par- 
lament, sit upon the Bench as an admi- 
* nistrator of law, and direct and control 
* The most sanctified of all sanctities— 
that is to say, the holiest of all holy things, 
we are disposed to think (and we have yet to 
discover the text, in all the sermons of 
Christ, that controverts the doctrine), are 
universal benevolence, and Christian morality : 
and we have yet to learn, with “all the 
trumpery” of hoods and cowls, relics 
and ceremonies, objected to the Catholics, 
that they lay weaker stress upon these, or 
assign to them less importance, than their 
Protestant brethren. 
Our correspondent will perceive, that 
among some other liberties which we have 
yentured to take with his text, we have 
omitted here altogether a passage relative 
to a description of persons, whom, as we 
could not permit them to vindicate them- 
selves in our pages, we cannot, therefore, 
in justice, permit in our pages to be vilified 
or attacked. Where defence*is not to be 
‘allowed, surely assault should not be per- 
mitted: hostility, otherwise, is not combat, 
but massacre. Besides, why should our 
Cato, while endeavouring to remove the 
prejudice against one description of per- 
sons, foster and inflame it against another ? 
As moral agents and members of civilized 
society, what have we to do with any men 
‘or any description of men, but inasmuch as 
relates to their moral and civic conduct ? 
‘Let us look abroad with unprejudiced eyes, 
and see, if our vision be microscopic enough 
to see, what there is of these that actually 
and practically has any necessary depen- 
dence. upon metaphysical and disputed 
opinions,-—Enp1r. 
Catholic Claims. 
423 
the counsels of the empire—may be a 
keeper of the King’s Conscience, or a 
Minister of State: for neither tests 
nor penal statutes can keep him out. 
He is an actor at perfect liberty to fill 
up every part. 
Is it possible to look with any degree 
of attention into the detail of the his- 
tory of the last half century (to go no 
further), and not perceive—thatit is the 
denial to the Catholics of that equaliza- 
tion of rights which ought, in justice, to 
obtain betwixt every religion, sect or 
persuasion, which has so long paralyzed 
the energies of Ireland ; and which has 
given rise to those horr ible ebullitions 
of demoniac phrenzy—those atrocious 
cruelties, with which the annals of 
that unhappy country are replete.+ 
But what is it, I would ask, that 
Protestants have to fear from the eman- 
cipation of the Catholics? Are they afraid 
that the Catholics should gain theascen-~ 
dancy, annihilate the Protestant religion, 
and massacre those who profess it ? Do 
they anticipate a repetition of the hor- 
rors of St. Bartholomew’s eve, or the fires 
of Smithfield? These are bugbears to 
frighten children, and horrify antiquated 
virgias, who scream into hysterics if the 
salt is spilt towards them, ard see phan- 
tasmagoria in the sediments of a teacup. 
The days when ignorance, and its fos- 
ter brethren, bigotry and persecution, 
reigned paramount, have passed away, 
The sun of knowledge has arisen in all 
his. brilliancy, scattering profusely his 
benignant beams over the wide expanse, 
instilling into the minds of men more 
liberal notions—and invigorating, in 
proportion, the sympathies of beneyo- 
lence. And are we so doubtful of the 
truths of our Protestant persuasion, as 
to be afraid of meeting its antagonists 
on equal grounds? Must we call in 
proscription, 
+ May it not be questioned, whether the 
cruelties which have been practised under 
the pretence of putting the provoked distur- 
bances down, have not been, in themselves, 
still more atrocious ?—EDIrT. 
¢ Not entirely so.—we wish they were. 
What says our correspondent to certain 
prosecutions (and penalties resulting from 
them) of those Protestant Inquisitions, the 
Vice and the Bridge-street associations ? 
By the way, it ought to be noticed, that 
there is more persecution, at this time, or 
lately was, going on, upon religious pre- 
tences, in Protestant England, than in the 
whole of the Catholic world: Spain, per- 
haps, excepted—where, thanks be to Eng- 
land, the Holy Inquisition is restored.— 
Epir. 
